Monday, July 27, 2009
Happy 10th Anniversary :)
Hi Everyone--
We had a great trip to Burr Oak... except that Britti and Chelsea Meagan REALLY missed having cell phone service... Nearly 48 hours without texting and Facebook--talk about roughin' it :)
We had a really informal and sweet vow renewal ceremony, and we met some other guests at the park who came to watch. We were especially glad to meet a couple with two daughters from China. We enjoyed trading stories with our new friends, and their girls liked meeting Ellie-Kate as well.
Although the weather didn't cooperate as much as we would have liked on Saturday (RAIN nearly all day...), we had fun with cooking meals, swimming in the lodge pool, relaxing over food, watching movies, and playing games in the lodge. Emmy had a blast with ping pong, and Ellie-Kate loved playing "ball" on our screened-in porch and in the lodge. We were even able to sneak in a few hikes between thunderstorms :)
I'm posting a few pictures now. Hope that you're having a great start to the week!
Christie
We had a great trip to Burr Oak... except that Britti and Chelsea Meagan REALLY missed having cell phone service... Nearly 48 hours without texting and Facebook--talk about roughin' it :)
We had a really informal and sweet vow renewal ceremony, and we met some other guests at the park who came to watch. We were especially glad to meet a couple with two daughters from China. We enjoyed trading stories with our new friends, and their girls liked meeting Ellie-Kate as well.
Although the weather didn't cooperate as much as we would have liked on Saturday (RAIN nearly all day...), we had fun with cooking meals, swimming in the lodge pool, relaxing over food, watching movies, and playing games in the lodge. Emmy had a blast with ping pong, and Ellie-Kate loved playing "ball" on our screened-in porch and in the lodge. We were even able to sneak in a few hikes between thunderstorms :)
I'm posting a few pictures now. Hope that you're having a great start to the week!
Christie
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Quick Family Update-- July 23, 2009
Hi Everyone--
As you'll see below, I just uploaded a bunch of new photos. We decided to celebrate our four month anniversary with Ellie-Kate (as well as her rapidly approaching 18 month birthday!) with a photo shoot at Walmart. As lots of people have observed, she's growing and changing so quickly that we want to freeze-frame every possible moment!!
Our summer continues to clip along at a fast pace. Chelsea and Emmy both finished their photography projects for 4-H, and, praise God for those China pictures! Both of the girls won their respective divisions, and we're headed for the state fair on August 1, right after Emmy shows Coco in the county dog show :) Now, Emmy's enjoying a bit of down time while Chelsea catches up on summer reading for her AP English and Bio classes. Britti's doing an internship for grad school at the local historical society, and Ellie-Kate tries to find every opportunity to get outside that she can!
We're headed for Burr Oak State Park tomorrow to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. We began the festivities tonight by watching our wedding video. Emmy has always felt left out that she wasn't part of the wedding so we're going to renew our vows tomorrow with all of the girls at our side, and Emmy and Ellie-Kate get to be flower girls. We were really praying that Ellie-Kate would be with us before our anniversary, and God graciously answered that prayer (and so many more!!) We're going to stay in a cabin and enjoy the lovely scenery, relaxing lodge, and pool/lake. On Sunday morning, we'll head home for one more 4-H meeting before the fair. Praise God for Lindsey!! She'll house-sit for us and try to keep the animals all alive until we return :)
Enjoy the new pics, and we'll post new ones from our trip ASAP. Have a great week-end!!
Christie
As you'll see below, I just uploaded a bunch of new photos. We decided to celebrate our four month anniversary with Ellie-Kate (as well as her rapidly approaching 18 month birthday!) with a photo shoot at Walmart. As lots of people have observed, she's growing and changing so quickly that we want to freeze-frame every possible moment!!
Our summer continues to clip along at a fast pace. Chelsea and Emmy both finished their photography projects for 4-H, and, praise God for those China pictures! Both of the girls won their respective divisions, and we're headed for the state fair on August 1, right after Emmy shows Coco in the county dog show :) Now, Emmy's enjoying a bit of down time while Chelsea catches up on summer reading for her AP English and Bio classes. Britti's doing an internship for grad school at the local historical society, and Ellie-Kate tries to find every opportunity to get outside that she can!
We're headed for Burr Oak State Park tomorrow to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. We began the festivities tonight by watching our wedding video. Emmy has always felt left out that she wasn't part of the wedding so we're going to renew our vows tomorrow with all of the girls at our side, and Emmy and Ellie-Kate get to be flower girls. We were really praying that Ellie-Kate would be with us before our anniversary, and God graciously answered that prayer (and so many more!!) We're going to stay in a cabin and enjoy the lovely scenery, relaxing lodge, and pool/lake. On Sunday morning, we'll head home for one more 4-H meeting before the fair. Praise God for Lindsey!! She'll house-sit for us and try to keep the animals all alive until we return :)
Enjoy the new pics, and we'll post new ones from our trip ASAP. Have a great week-end!!
Christie
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Cute Moments -- July 22, 2009
Hi Everyone--
We're on the eve of our four month anniversary with Ellie-Kate. We held her for the first time on March 23!! To celebrate, I wanted to share some particularly cute moments that we've had just in the past few days. She is so adorable and expressive and smart, and we're so blessed for every moment with her!!
1. Chelsea loves to adorn her little sister with hair bows, and she must have really made an impression on Ellie-Kate. A week or so ago when Chelsea was away at camp, Roger and I started to go for a quick walk around the neighborhood. I said (in mock horror) "oh no, we're leaving the house without a bow." Ellie-Kate immediately whipped her hand to her head and exclaimed "BOW, BOW!!" Yup, she's trained well :)
2. Along those same lines, we were just at the ball park on Tuesday for one of Emmy's baseball games, and we had packed Ellie-Kate's ball cap. Chelsea HATES for Ellie-Kate to wear a hat instead of a bow, and Ellie-Kate must know it. She asked for her hat, put it on sideways, walked over to Chelsea, and said "Hat, hat" with a huge chuckle. Okay, Chelsea was not amused. We can't get over how smart that Ellie-Kate is that she's already able to give her older sister some grief :)
3. What would a budding "girly girl" be without an obsession for shoes? We were at the library last week, and I pointed out a picture book about different types of shoes (matching people from various professions/activities). Yup, she had to bring it home :)
4. She's so intuitive, and, as she walks around the house, she points at various objects (such as a sweatshirt on a chair, etc.) and says the name of the person to whom it belongs. Given that I'm most likely to toss my sweatshirts on chairs, I get to hear my name a lot :) Also, if Roger gets up with her early, she calls my name as she passes our bedroom room for her own. She knows that Mama is still snoozing!
5. Given her early childhood experiences, we didn't know how she would be with other kids. She's turning into a socialite! We knew that she was a tolerant child from her patience with some of the kids when they don't share (or take toys away from her) in the church nursery, but she never really initiated play until Tuesday. At Emmy's ballgame, she found a few "friends" on a nearby blanket. She walked over to them and tossed her ball toward them. Before long, they were all running around together, playing with the ball, rolling in the grass, and laughing together. She's very outgoing, friendly, and increasingly confident!
6. Until our trip earlier this month to Indiana, bedtimes had been a bit long and rough. She always seemed very nervous about falling asleep. However, since our return, she has become even more relaxed around us and falls asleep with ease. We'll never know for sure, but we wonder if this deeper calm stems from a trust that she's really and truly with us, that she's not going to be passed off to anyone else. When we returned home from the trip and we brought her through that door, she rushed to embrace her daddy and her toys, and she gushed with gratitude to be HOME! She really hasn't stopped smiling for the past few weeks!! It's as though she now knows for absolute certain that she doesn't have to keep wondering if (or when) someone else will take care of her-- she has US, and we have HER-- we're FAMILY!!
Of course, every moment is special, but I wanted to share these few particularly cute ones with you. In the next few days, I'll post a family update as well as some new pictures. (I just found some pics that Chelsea and Emmy took in China and here in Ohio, and I'll try to get them up as well.)
Hope that all is well! Thanks for reading about our family :)
Christie
We're on the eve of our four month anniversary with Ellie-Kate. We held her for the first time on March 23!! To celebrate, I wanted to share some particularly cute moments that we've had just in the past few days. She is so adorable and expressive and smart, and we're so blessed for every moment with her!!
1. Chelsea loves to adorn her little sister with hair bows, and she must have really made an impression on Ellie-Kate. A week or so ago when Chelsea was away at camp, Roger and I started to go for a quick walk around the neighborhood. I said (in mock horror) "oh no, we're leaving the house without a bow." Ellie-Kate immediately whipped her hand to her head and exclaimed "BOW, BOW!!" Yup, she's trained well :)
2. Along those same lines, we were just at the ball park on Tuesday for one of Emmy's baseball games, and we had packed Ellie-Kate's ball cap. Chelsea HATES for Ellie-Kate to wear a hat instead of a bow, and Ellie-Kate must know it. She asked for her hat, put it on sideways, walked over to Chelsea, and said "Hat, hat" with a huge chuckle. Okay, Chelsea was not amused. We can't get over how smart that Ellie-Kate is that she's already able to give her older sister some grief :)
3. What would a budding "girly girl" be without an obsession for shoes? We were at the library last week, and I pointed out a picture book about different types of shoes (matching people from various professions/activities). Yup, she had to bring it home :)
4. She's so intuitive, and, as she walks around the house, she points at various objects (such as a sweatshirt on a chair, etc.) and says the name of the person to whom it belongs. Given that I'm most likely to toss my sweatshirts on chairs, I get to hear my name a lot :) Also, if Roger gets up with her early, she calls my name as she passes our bedroom room for her own. She knows that Mama is still snoozing!
5. Given her early childhood experiences, we didn't know how she would be with other kids. She's turning into a socialite! We knew that she was a tolerant child from her patience with some of the kids when they don't share (or take toys away from her) in the church nursery, but she never really initiated play until Tuesday. At Emmy's ballgame, she found a few "friends" on a nearby blanket. She walked over to them and tossed her ball toward them. Before long, they were all running around together, playing with the ball, rolling in the grass, and laughing together. She's very outgoing, friendly, and increasingly confident!
6. Until our trip earlier this month to Indiana, bedtimes had been a bit long and rough. She always seemed very nervous about falling asleep. However, since our return, she has become even more relaxed around us and falls asleep with ease. We'll never know for sure, but we wonder if this deeper calm stems from a trust that she's really and truly with us, that she's not going to be passed off to anyone else. When we returned home from the trip and we brought her through that door, she rushed to embrace her daddy and her toys, and she gushed with gratitude to be HOME! She really hasn't stopped smiling for the past few weeks!! It's as though she now knows for absolute certain that she doesn't have to keep wondering if (or when) someone else will take care of her-- she has US, and we have HER-- we're FAMILY!!
Of course, every moment is special, but I wanted to share these few particularly cute ones with you. In the next few days, I'll post a family update as well as some new pictures. (I just found some pics that Chelsea and Emmy took in China and here in Ohio, and I'll try to get them up as well.)
Hope that all is well! Thanks for reading about our family :)
Christie
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Special Moments...
In the blur of our daily lives, it's easy for us to be really tasky... darting from one activity or commitment to another. Even though I'm not teaching this summer, I still find much on my "to do" list with lingering adoption details, 4-H stuff, and, of course, carting the older girls to activities and camps. However, Ellie-Kate continues to be a tremendous reminder of the delights of slowing down and viewing the world from two feet, not 5'2".
We had such a sweet morning today. We went into the playroom peek on the rabbits. Although I had planned on just checking to make sure that they were all still alive, Ellie-Kate promptly pulled out a container of play food and the container of Disney figurines, and we had an impromptu breakfast picnic in the playroom. We "dined" on pretend food and talked to our Disney friends for over 15 minutes!!
We headed in for bath time, and Ellie-Kate, again, taught me the quiet majesty and wonder of taking our time. We laughed and played for another 20 minutes. After drying off, she patiently played in her play pen while I got ready. It was so cool to hear her as she "read" her family picture book-- "Mama" and "Dada" as she pointed at our photos.
I started to head for the stairs so that we could go down to the kitchen, my mind already rushing to preparing for lunchtime, but she took my hand and led me into her bedroom, reminding me that we needed to brush her teeth and, in one of my favorite moments of the morning, that she absolutely was not completely dressed without a bow in her hair.
At only 17 months, Ellie-Kate teaches me something new every day. Truly, praise God for her and for her loving reminders that we need to celebrate all of the "mundane" yet special moments, especially given the frequent frenzy of keeping up with "stuff" that we "have" to do. What a wonderful blessing!! Thank you for coming into our lives, Ellie-Kate!!
We had such a sweet morning today. We went into the playroom peek on the rabbits. Although I had planned on just checking to make sure that they were all still alive, Ellie-Kate promptly pulled out a container of play food and the container of Disney figurines, and we had an impromptu breakfast picnic in the playroom. We "dined" on pretend food and talked to our Disney friends for over 15 minutes!!
We headed in for bath time, and Ellie-Kate, again, taught me the quiet majesty and wonder of taking our time. We laughed and played for another 20 minutes. After drying off, she patiently played in her play pen while I got ready. It was so cool to hear her as she "read" her family picture book-- "Mama" and "Dada" as she pointed at our photos.
I started to head for the stairs so that we could go down to the kitchen, my mind already rushing to preparing for lunchtime, but she took my hand and led me into her bedroom, reminding me that we needed to brush her teeth and, in one of my favorite moments of the morning, that she absolutely was not completely dressed without a bow in her hair.
At only 17 months, Ellie-Kate teaches me something new every day. Truly, praise God for her and for her loving reminders that we need to celebrate all of the "mundane" yet special moments, especially given the frequent frenzy of keeping up with "stuff" that we "have" to do. What a wonderful blessing!! Thank you for coming into our lives, Ellie-Kate!!
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